Strings shipped with 50s J-45 Original?

[Bob J45]

Music Villa sold me a new 50s J-45 Original in November. I’m about to change the strings and I’m trying to determine which strings came with it from Bozeman. The gauges are well publicized, but the make and material are not. I suppose Gibson reserves the right to change vendors at will. I’d also assume they use their Gibson strings, but who knows?

[Sgt. Pepper]

55 minutes ago, Bob J45 said:

Music Villa sold me a new 50s J-45 Original in November. I’m about to change the strings and I’m trying to determine which strings came with it from Bozeman. The gauges are well publicized, but the make and material are not. I suppose Gibson reserves the right to change vendors at will. I’d also assume they use their Gibson strings, but who knows?

This has been discussed here numerous times. It is said they used to use GHS as a maker, but not any more. Some think D'ad does, some say they make their own? Not sure.

Here is this lovable guy talking about it.

 

[BoSoxBiker]

1 hour ago, Bob J45 said:

Music Villa sold me a new 50s J-45 Original in November. I’m about to change the strings and I’m trying to determine which strings came with it from Bozeman. The gauges are well publicized, but the make and material are not. I suppose Gibson reserves the right to change vendors at will. I’d also assume they use their Gibson strings, but who knows?

Do you have a camera that you can dip down into the guitar or a mechanic's mirror to take some pics of the ball end of the guitars? That will get you/us closer. Alternating silver and gold colored ends would most likely mean that they were the Gibson strings. They've used d'adds and who knows what when supplies ran short. I think two of my three 2020-2021 models came with Gibson strings. The other was restrung.

There's always the chance that MV changed them as part of a pre-shipping inspection and fresh strings procedures that some places do.

Either way, they were likely PB's and not 80/20's.

What Sarge wrote pretty much sums up what a day of research would dig up. I asked the same thing last May regarding my new Dove.

[Murph]

I'd bet Sal's paycheck they used Gibson coated strings. The coating prevents grunge longer while the guitars are hanging at the dealers. Taylor figured this out decades ago and used Elixirs.

[Murph]

And that's a LOT of money...

😁

[Dave F]

I checked the strings on my new L00 and they matched Gibson Light Gage. The ball ends alternated from brass to nickel to brass ....

I ordered a few sets of the strings below and the ball ends matched the brass/nickel/brass..... I restrung four other Gibson's so I can do some comparisons in a couple weeks.

Music Zoo had the best price I could find.

 

 

[egoidealmusic]

Interesting.  I'd thought they were shipping with the PBs.